19:52 - SpawdophonikDoes anyone live in an American suburb, if so is it still like this:

19:33 - Marcel Hubregtsebtw if you want to hear some really off the wall covers when compared to the originals listen to this split [link]

19:32 - Marcel HubregtseYeah that's a great cover. Loved at first listen when I got hold of the vinyl version of One in Darkness, Two in Damnation, Three in Death, 2002 - 2007 compilation on their tour in 2013.

10:39 - Ace FrawleyShit, just read this on Twitter: Due to some recent activity that we as individuals have zero tolerance for, Danny Walker is no longer the drummer in Intronaut. What the hell happened?

Additional infoRecorded by Luigi Stefanini at New Sin Studios, Italy, March 2001
Mixed by Fredrick Nordstrom at Fredman Studio, Sweden, December 2001
Mastered by Goran Finnberg at the Mastering Room, Sweden, December 2001
Cover artwork by Travis Smith, for Seemipieces

Debut album of these young Italians, Heathenreel bring us Folk metal at is finest form, by mixing melodic speed metal with folk influences and some medieval sounds Elvenking created something really interesting here.

The interesting thing about this debut is the variety in the vocal department, it goes from the typical power-metalish voice of Damnagoras to some nice death growls and a female singer, it really enhances the whole experience.

"Elvenking"? What a lame name... I popped the cd in the stereo and this enchanting, luring folk tune flowed out.
I sat there, staring at the cover art, and the entangling tune combined with the cover suddenly made perfect sense to me. I had the feeling of breaking forest edge and being allured into untrodden territory. Then all of sudden, with an impact that would haunt me to this day, "Pagan Purity" kicks in. I almost fell of my chair... The tranquility was replaced with ecstasy, and there was no way back, for I was already deep within the woods of the kings. The tranquility never returns, and yet it does, just in a different form. One quickly adepts to Elvenking's flow, and the tranquility returns in form of endlessly catchy choruses. But the idea remains, of luring the listener into a place where he believes himself "safe" and then runs him over from head to toe.

Comments

Listening to this album again after many years, I can't help feeling nostalgic. Those were the days... Back then Elvenking's music sounded really fresh, inspired and interesting. Not to put the band down, but the latest albums of these Italian pagans inspire in me only boredom, while Heathenreel made me spend many a enjoyable evening being comfortable embraced by the sound waves and imagining the stories of the dwellers of the old oak woods...
My favourites: all of the tracks, not a single weak one.

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"And we are not who we think we are
We are who we're afraid to be"
- Lux Occulta "The Opening of Eleventh Sephirah"